the president will say to set the policy agenerda and the ton in his inauguralspeech.danlothian,what do we know about the speech and what the president wants to tell the american people? >> reporter: we're told by those familiar with the president's remarks that this will not be a policy speech but rather he will make it sort of a hopeful plea, talk about the reality that here in washington you can't settle every debate, but that you can look for areas of common ground. and this is a big difference from 2009 when the president came into office talking about changing the way that washington works and ran into the reality up on capitol hill. so he'll touch on that, touch on some of the challenges that the country faces as he moves forward on some key issues such as gun control, immigration reform, tries to deal with the debt ceiling. and finally, we're told that the president will push to get the public engaged, engaged in their community, engaged in the issues to put pressure on congress to move the president's initiatives forward, john. this is seen as sort of the stage one or the act one,

.>>danlothianis on the south lawn of the whitehouse.dan, thepresident is now basically two hours into his second term. i was going to ask, what happens now? obviously it's all moving toward the big day tomorrow. what's going on? >> that's right. well you know this is a little down time for the president after a very busy day next up for the president and the vice president tonight, both of them will be attending a candlelight service at the national building museum here in washington. caps off again a very busy day that started. the president and vice president laying a wreath at arlington national cemetery and the president attending an african-american in the district and the swearing in ceremony that you pointed out a few seconds ago where the president surrounded by a few close family members and friends taking the oath. the interesting moment i think came at the very end, where the first daughter sasha said to the president. that he didn't mess up. the president acknowledging some relief saying that quote, i did it. this of course is in reference to four years ago when there

weapons ban through. >> let's head to washington and the whitehouse.danlothianisthere,sodan, isthe nra right? >> well, you know, i'm not going to make any predictions about what congress may or may not do. as we have learned over the last few years, what i can say is that assault weapons ban does appear to be facing an uphill effort up on capitol hill and i think what's interesting is that the president, right after the mass shooting in connecticut came out and talked about, you know, putting his support behind efforts to reinstate the assault weapons ban and this had been the position of the white house since then but what was interesting last week when the vice president was rolling out what he said what are the top tier recommendations that he had been getting of meeting with several groups he did not mention that at all so there were questions about whether the white house itself may have felt that it was losing steam and there was not support for this on capitol hill. but shortly thereafter, a spokesman for the white house saying the president and the vice president ar

violence. cnn white housecorrespondentdanlothianjoin us livenow.dan. >>and the vice president ao met with the president today. they went other some proposals. the president saying that later in the week, he'll be outlining some specifics about watt administration needs to do. there will be no doubt, some resistance to what the president will be offering. but the president says that he is not worried about the politics. president obama says he's already reviewing the vice president's recommendations aimed at tackling gun violence. while some may require congressional approval. >> how we are gathering data, for example, on guns that fall into the hands of criminals. and how we track that more effectively. there may be some steps that we can take administratively as opposed to through legislation. >> reporter: strong resistance to executive orders from some gun right advocates who fear their second amendment rights might be put at risk. vice president biden, meeting with everyone from gun rights groups to the entertainment industry, sat down with house democrats on a task force put toge

themes and we just learned thisfromdanlothianwho covers the white house. this is sort of the fact that the president is confronting the reality of a divided washington that he'll be acknowledging that there are some divisions but he'll talk about how there's responsibility to work on issues where there are common ground and, of course, this is considered certainly a speech that is somewhat hard to deliver not only because historically second inaugurals are not always very memorable but also because it's situated in a very weird place temp porely for president obama. we've just had the fiscal cliff battle. there's an upcoming one with the debt ceiling. ep has to acknowledge this not so pretty reality in the washington as he gives a speech that's supposed to be inspirational. >> the reality is the same congress he was working with on friday will be the same congress he's working with come tuesday despite the speech. we'll watch closely to see more details coming up. thank you so much. we'll watch more of this ahead. >> we always know security is tight in washington, but for the inau

are injured. this is according tocaptaindansutterwith the st. louis fire department. says that there are two adult males. they are in critical condition but he wouldn't say if one of the victims was the shooter, wouldn't talk details with either of those injuries and that's what we have so far. thanks so much for being with me. joe johns in the situation room today. hey, joe. >> hey, brooke. >>> happening now, president obama decides to go big on gun reform acting on his own and asking congress for reform that will be hard to pass. we'll hear part of oprah winfrey's reaction to lance armstrong's confession. plus, an exclusive look inside a lab that could save your life. see how close we are to a super vaccine to keep you from getting the flu for years. wolf blitzer's off today. i'm joe johns. you're in "the situation room." we begin now with a guessing game about what is in president obama's so called comprehensive proposals to cut down on gun violence. the president and vice president are set to unveil their plans tomorrow and even though officials are trying to keep the